ILO’s 100th conference to tackle rights of domestic workers

World leaders at the 100th International Labour Conference (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland aim to address the rising global unemployment and giving social protection to domestic workers — most of whom are female and come from developing countries like the Philippines. Aside from finding ways to protect the basic rights to millions of domestic workers, world leaders at the 100th ILO session are meeting from June 1-17 to highlight challenges in the world of work such as record high unemployment, the global youth employment crisis, the extension of social protection coverage, and fair treatment at the workplace. ILO director-general Juan Somavia opened the conference by declaring that, “Our world of work is in turmoil." The conference will also tackle the proposed international labor standard on domestic work that will impact millions of Filipino domestic workers in many Arab countries and Asian capitals such as Hong Kong and Singapore. World leaders will also tackle the lingering uprisings in the Middle East and North African countries where some 3 million Filipino workers face massive displacement and security threats. According to ILO data, there are at least 52.6 million domestic workers worldwide of which 12 million are in Asia — excluding China. Nine million of the Asian tally are women. Child labor The conference will also touch on the need to adopt policy measures to address the problem of child labor. The ILO Philippines said there are 2.4 million child laborers in the Philippines but the figures do not include children in the worst forms of child labor that include internet pornography and child soldiers. Citing his report titled “A new era of social justice," Somavia told some 3,000 government, employer and worker delegates “whether a new era of social justice remains just an idealized vision of a desired future, or becomes a practical reality that takes hold in our societies, will depend in many ways on you, on us, on the ILO family." The conference will be attended by world leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Palestian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Finnish President Tarja Kaarina Halonen, Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete and Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, as well as various former heads of states and heads of international agencies. The conference has drawn some 3,000 delegates and advisers, including government representatives and leaders of workers’ and employers’ organizations from the ILO’s 183 member states. Each member state has the right to send four delegates to the conference: two from government and one each representing workers and employers, each of whom may speak and vote independently. — MRT/VS, GMA News